Ep.57 - What's Coming This Fall On The Podcast?

#SiblingsToo - Exploring the impacts of sibling sexual abuse

Nancy Morris is the host of the "SiblingsToo" podcast, dedicated to bringing awareness and reducing the stigma surrounding sibling sexual abuse (SSA). With a commitment to amplifying the voices of survivors, academics, and professionals, Nancy employs her platform to foster education, support, and meaningful conversations about the complex impacts of SSA on families and individuals.

Episode Summary: In this captivating episode, Nancy delves into the upcoming projects and thematic shifts that will shape the podcast's future. The episode serves as an insightful guide on what listeners can expect as the conversation around sibling sexual abuse continues to evolve.

Nancy underscores the introduction of Teagan McLaren's impactful song "Breaking the Silence" as the new audio and video anthem for the podcast, reinforcing the ongoing mission to break societal taboos. Entwining anecdotes from listeners and feedback from academics, Nancy shares her enthusiasm for the growing community of support and awareness surrounding SSA, emphasizing the critical role of storytelling in changing perceptions and aiding healing.

Key Takeaways: • Reminder of Teagan McLaren's Song: The podcast will continue to feature "Breaking the Silence" by Teagan McLaren to encapsulate the podcast's mission and ethos. • New Messaging Initiatives: The podcast will introduce fresh messaging aimed at reducing societal and self-imposed stigma and giving voice to the voiceless across the family dynamic. • Upcoming Interviews: Future episodes will explore diverse perspectives, including international viewpoints and experiences from different family members affected by SSA. • Focus on Education: There's a significant push towards educating professionals, academics, and the public to bridge the knowledge gap regarding SSA. • Community Engagement: Listeners are encouraged to share their thoughts, stories, and suggestions to help shape the podcast and support those affected by SSA.

Notable Quotes: • "Breaking the silence around sibling sexual abuse is why the 'SiblingsToo' podcast exists to begin with." • "I've heard from many academics, professionals, lived experience experts, family members...that the genie that is the secret of sibling sexual abuse will not be able to go back in the bottle." • "One of the ways to minimize stigma is to share knowledge, to share opportunities for education, to teach people some of the facts and outcomes and impacts of sibling sexual abuse." • "What happens now? Now that the genie is nice and fat, or getting fatter anyway, what do we do next?" • "I know this isn't necessarily a topic we want to be talking about, but we need to. And the more we do, the easier the conversation becomes."

Resources: • Visit the "SiblingsToo" website • Follow the "SiblingsToo" project on Facebook and Instagram

Stay tuned to the "SiblingsToo" podcast for more groundbreaking discussions and essential resources that not only foster awareness but also pave the way for effective prevention and intervention practices in sibling sexual abuse. Your participation and feedback are vital to continuing this important conversation. Listen to the full episode for a comprehensive understanding, and join us in making sure the genie remains forever out of the bottle.

Computer-generated transcript

Ep.57 – What’s Coming This Fall On The Podcast Hosted by Nancy Morris of #SiblingsToo

0:00:01 - Well, it's great to be back in the #SiblingsToo podcast hosting chair the fall of 2024. And we're back. So I want to take a few minutes just to share with you some of what's coming up in the next few weeks and months with the #SiblingsToo podcast and project. A lot's actually going to be going on. There's going to be some new projects. There's going to be some new work being done with the stories that are being collected at the #SiblingsToo website. 0:00:31 - We're going to be using some of the information from those stories directly on the podcast to reinforce some of the messaging, and we're going to be changing some of the messaging. So there's going to be a lot going on in the next few weeks and months. One thing I wanted to check in with you, though, right now. Did you notice that Tegan McLaren's song Breaking the Silence is now introducing all of the siblings to podcast episodes? 0:01:00 - It will be the song that is used for everything that #SiblingsToo produces in audio format and even in video format as we go forward. As I mentioned in the podcast episode where I interviewed Tegan about the work that she did on the song, you know, I think it's such a great song. And the messaging is really important, not only for those who have survived sibling sexual abuse, but for the rest of the entire family. 0:01:29 - In fact, breaking the silence around sibling sexual abuse is why the #SiblingsToo podcast exists to begin with. So let's just keep working. Let's keep the conversation going. I've said in the past that one of the jobs I feel that I have, one of the outcomes that I was hoping for was that the genie would be too fat to fit back in the bottle. And I've heard from many people, academics, professionals, lived, experience experts, family members, the general public who are familiar with the podcast, my Facebook friends, my Instagram friends, and so on and so forth, that they strongly believe that the genie that is the secret of sibling sexual abuse will not be able to go back in the bottle like it has done in the fat in the past. 0:02:22 - Let's face it, the conversation about sibling sexual abuse has been around for a while, probably a good 40, 50 years now. I've got books written by academics from the eighties talking about SSA and the importance of bringing the conversation to light. I've got research papers from the same sort of time. And even before talking about the idea that there are impacts to sibling sexual abuse for every member of the family, and those impacts need to be discussed. 0:02:56 - Prevention needs to be prioritized intervention needs to be thoughtful because SSA is so different from many other forms of, and those sorts of discussions were being had long ago. But because this is such a difficult subject and it is still considered, you know, society's last taboo around family sexual violence, people don't want to talk about it. But now I think the genie's way too fat to get back in the bottle. 0:03:28 - And that's thanks to those who listen to this podcast and other people who are out there in the world making a lot of noise about SSA. And I don't mean noise in a derogatory way. I mean people who are sharing their voice, their story, their information, whether that is a person who was harmed, a person who harmed other family members, parents, other siblings, other members of the public, talking about people that they knew, and so on and so forth. So now the conversations are becoming normalized. We still have a long way to go, a long way to go, but they are becoming normalized, and the genie is too fat to get back in the bottle. 0:04:13 - That is, in part thanks to you, the people who are downloading these podcast episodes and taking them to heart. And I know a great number of the people who are listening to the #SiblingsToo podcast also have contributed to the #SiblingsToo awareness days that have happened in 2023 and 2024. On April 15, there will be another 1. April 15, 2025 for sure. The form of it, I don't know yet. We're working on that. But it is coming. 0:04:44 - And it's those people such as yourself listening now, and the others who have either listened to the podcast or engaged with the videos at the #SiblingsToo YouTube channel, who are responsible for ensuring that the genie doesn't go back in the bottle. And I thank you for that. I thank you for the time and energy that you give to this podcast and to the work that I and others do, whether those others are lived, experienced folks or academics and professionals who are now really on the forefront of providing care and education and support and guidance to those who have been impacted by SSA and those families who want to prevent it from occurring in the first place. 0:05:30 - So thank you for that. So what's coming? What. What are we going to be talking about? Well, as I said, there's going to be some new messaging coming out of the #SiblingsToo podcast directed towards society as a whole. New information that I hope will speed up the idea of not only raising awareness, but reducing the stigma, which to me, is the real villain in sibling sexual abuse. Not only societal stigma, but the self stigma that family members put on themselves about this topic. 0:06:06 - The one of the ways to minimize stigma is to share knowledge, to share opportunities for education, to teach people some of the facts and outcomes and impacts, et cetera, of siblings sexual abuse, so that there isn't a gap of knowledge that sort of stigma can squeeze into. And that's where it is. It's usually in a gap of knowledge. It's usually in, you know, a space where people don't have the right information. 0:06:35 - So I'm really going to be leaning into education. And as it comes to the #SiblingsToo podcast education for professionals, those on the front line, social workers, counselors, therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, those that work in areas of social services, family services, child welfare, et cetera, et cetera. Those sorts of professionals that don't easily have access to some of this information. 0:07:05 - And while some is certainly being created in professional associations for those at work on the front line, it's lacking. I think many people would agree that there's a big gap of education there for the professionals. Also, I want to share information between academics. So I've got the honor of knowing people around the world who work in this field, work in this conversation, as it were, and they don't always get to chat with each other. So I'm going to be bringing more of those international viewpoints to the #SiblingsToo podcast. 0:07:39 - I also want to bring the viewpoints of other people who are impacted by sibling sexual abuse, not only the child that was harmed, and it's usually, of course, adult survivors that we have on the show, because I can't bring child survivors onto the show, but adult survivors, but also there are other family members. There is a person who caused harm. I know that my episode with Adam who openly admits to the behaviors that he had when he was younger and the impacts on not only his sister, but on his other sibling, and how it changed the family dynamic for that sibling and his parents, and how his behavior fundamentally changed many parts of the family dynamic. 0:08:23 - His viewpoint is important, and the #SiblingsToo podcast will be giving space to those people who have those viewpoints as well. Also parents, parents of those children who are involved in sibling sexual abuse. They have a viewpoint that is often very difficult to share, but I will be giving more space to those viewpoints in future as well. Plus, we're also going to be looking a little bit more at the notion of what are some of the ways that people who are impacted by SSA, regardless of where they are in the family, but who are impacted by it. In any event, some of the ways that they can self support, as it were, self heal. I don't like that word. But the idea of providing for themselves self care as it relates to their journey beyond sibling sexual abuse. 0:09:17 - I'm going to be looking further into a lot of the research that's going on. As this conversation has been ramping up over the last few years. And as the genie has been getting fatter, many academics are seeing new opportunities for research around things like language. What language is best supportive of, particularly the survivor of sibling sexual abuse, but others as well, and how the language that's used hurts or hinders or sometimes helps the whole conversation. I think that's an important topic to dive into a little bit more and I'm looking forward to having those conversations with not only the academics who are doing the research, but the lived experience folks who are contributing to it. 0:10:02 - I think that is an important topic to go alongside with some of the other conversations related to trauma and the impacts on the body, for example, mind, body, spirit work, things like that that we touched on in the last know, 20 or 30 episodes, but really want to dive in more along with the importance of understanding SSA through the light of things like PTSD, addictions, suicidal ideations, mental health issues, relationship issues, self esteem, all of these sorts of things that we know are impacts. 0:10:38 - But beyond raising awareness and reducing stigma, one of the other topics that I really want to dive into in coming episodes is what's next? So what happens now? Now that the genie is nice and fat, or getting fatter anyway, what do we do next? Well, that's where we're going to be talking about the opportunities and obstacles for including sex education, including sibling sexual abuse and sex education for the need for more funding, for additional resources, research and tools that not only help to prevent sibling sexual abuse, but intervene appropriately when it occurs. 0:11:20 - These topics are close to my heart and I know from the feedback that I get through the #SiblingsToo website and also on the social media and other channels as well. These topics are really important to the audience. I hope you're intrigued by what's coming down the pipeline in terms of the podcast. The next interview I've done is with Doctor Risa Shaw, who wrote not child's play. It's a fascinating discussion that's coming out in a couple of weeks and I'm very excited about it. And you'll understand why when you listen to the episode, why it's so important for me to have interviewed Doctor Shaw. And the conversation that we had was, I think, quite excellent in terms of the importance of storytelling and why just speaking of one's experiences is so relevant these days. 0:12:11 - So that's next in line. So that'll be the next episode coming out in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, if you have an idea, a thought, a comment, if you have a constructive criticism about the podcast, if there's something that you'd like to hear more about, if you're a professional that and you have a particular situation, I obviously can't help with the situation, but maybe there's a piece of information that can be helpful for you to hear. Because if it's helpful for you, I can guarantee you it's helpful for many other people as well. 0:12:45 - I also know that a lot of parents listen to professionals talking about the professional approach to SSA because it gives parents some insight. And if you're one of those parents and there's something that you want to know, please do let me know through the social channels or the website itself. For those of you who have been harmed by sibling sexual abuse, as always, you are my number one priority. 0:13:12 - I'm there with you, and I want to ensure that the #SiblingsToo podcast is supporting you and your needs. So if there's something you want to feed back to me, that's great. To the other family members who don't think necessarily that this podcast is for you, it is, and I welcome speaking with you and talking about how it is you might want to contribute to the overall conversation related to siblings sexual abuse. 0:13:38 - The #SiblingsToo podcast is going to continue to bring real information, data, research, and most importantly, the stories that matter about sibling sexual abuse. So we not only raise awareness and we reduce the stigma, but we add positively to the opportunities that are becoming available to prevent SSA from occurring and to intervene when it has. That's what's coming down the pipeline. I hope you're as excited about it as I am. 0:14:09 - I know this isn't necessarily a topic we want to be talking about, but we need to. And the more we do, the easier the conversation becomes. So continue to listen in. Please join me on Facebook at the #SiblingsToo page on Facebook, the #SiblingsToo project page at Instagram, or the #SiblingsToo channel on YouTube. And I look forward to hearing from you. Take care.